Guyana’s ruling People’s Progressive Party has won the elections that took place this week in the South American nation, getting one more term to develop the country’s oil and gas reserves.
Per early reports in Guyanese media, the People’s Progressive Party won in eight of ten electoral districts, which provides it with a comfortable majority.
“The results are all out there, as published by the Guyana elections commission. The numbers are clear. The people have spoken in an overwhelming way. We have won these elections with a remarkable margin,” Guyana’s president, Irfaan Ali, told The Guardian. “We have delivered everything we set out to do over the last five years and that is why they trust us with our vision and agenda for the next five years,” he also said.
The Guyanese government has used the windfall from oil sales to build infrastructure, schools, and hospitals but many in Guyana still live in poverty. As oil production grows, however, so should income to invest in more public services and reducing poverty levels.
Crude oil exports from Guyana averaged about 582,000 barrels per day last year, as ExxonMobil and its partners Hess Corp and CNOOC of China continued to boost production from the offshore Stabroek Block, where more than 11 billion oil-equivalent barrels have been discovered to date.
Since the end of 2019, when Guyana exported its first crude oil cargo, the country has become the fifth biggest exporter in Latin America, after Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela, and Colombia. Production has been growing fast and steady, with Exxon starting up the fourth floating production unit in the Stabroek Block in August, bringing up Guyana’s total oil production capacity to 900,000 barrels daily.
Plans are to boost this to as much as 1.7 million barrels daily by 2030, with eight floating production, storage, and offloading vessels on the site.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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